National Science and Technology Review
As mandated in the Science and Technology Development Act (No. 11 of 1994), NASTEC should review annually the status of the science and technology in Sri Lanka and should submit a status report o the government.
NASTEC started a pilot review of the status of the country S&T in 2007. This review was based on the data/information gathered from the annual reports of S&T institutions. This pilot review was basically a quantitative analysis. The statistical significance of the total outcome of the national S&T system against the total expenditure on S&T and the available human resources in the S&T system was tested for the year 2005. None of them were found statistically significant in this analysis. However, the inadequacy of data and other limitations of the data that can be extracted from annual reports restricts further analysis and the reliability of the results.
NASTEC also has a mandate to review the individual S&T institutions. To fulfill this requirement NASTEC has developed a review manual. The review procedure comprised the following main components: calling of a self-evaluation report prepared based on a given format, visiting of institutions for physical review and submission of the final review report. We expect to review at least five S&T institutions per year.
Prior to starting the actual review, the need for training of reviewers was identified. NASTEC called applications from individuals, who wish to work as reviewers and an orientation workshop was held to train them on the review procedure.
NASTEC has already identified a set of S&T institutions to be reviewed during the year 2009. Some of the institutions already sent their self-evaluation reports to NASTEC. The review expected to be started in the first quarter of the year 2009.